Gardening Guides
Be a gardening legend with step-by-step instructions on how to grow a wide range of plants, what to plant when, how to combat pests and diseases, plus extra tips and tricks to get your garden flourishing.
Be a gardening legend with step-by-step instructions on how to grow a wide range of plants, what to plant when, how to combat pests and diseases, plus extra tips and tricks to get your garden flourishing.
We've compiled some tips for you to be able to get more fruits from your vege garden especially during harvest time.
Here are some gardening tips that will enable more fruiting!
1. SOIL MATTERS
Good quality potting mix is equipped with nutrients that will help your plants develop strong roots.
2. Feeding your plants with good fertilisers will boost their yields.
Some options are: Liquid Seaweed and Tomato Foods
3. Choice of plants
Look for plants that grow well within your region's climate. Warmer areas are great for tomatoes while brassicas and cabbages can thrive in cooler areas.
Plant based on what's in season. Use our planting calendar as your guide.
4. Spacing
Give your plants enough space to grow. Planting too close is a disease risk and inhibit proper growth.
5. COMPANION Planting
Companion plants are plants that support the growth of other species to promote their growth. For example, tomatoes love being planted with basil. Mixing flowers with veges help reduce pests and help attract pollinators. It's also helpful to diversify flowering plants, perennials and annuals. Choose blooms that are rich in nectar.
6. Keep picking.
The more you pick, the more the plant produces. Picking initiates more flowers and fruits.
7. WATER regularly.
Keep a schedule. Plants need regular, consistent watering. Irregular watering causes disease and can leave vegetables like lettuce bitter tasting. In hot months, better water early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
8. Watch out for weeds.
These weeds will try to consume the water and nutrients meant for your plants.
9. Let sunshine do its magic.
Veggies love a lot of sun, ideally about 8 hours a day.
10. Start with easy plants.
If you're a beginner, here are some easy-to-grow plants for your edible garden:
Radish, Herbs (Basil Sweet, Parsley), Lettuces, Broccoli, Sweet corn, Spring Onions
Understanding what type of soil you have in your garden is the first step to successfully growing plants. Here are few tips from Tod on identifying your soil type and what to do about it.
Identifying your soil:
Grab a handful of damp dirt and rub it around in your hand. Sandy soil will feel gritty and be difficult to roll into a ball. Clay loam will feel sticky and roll into a ball or a ribbon. Loam will feel gritty but roll into a ball when damp. And clay will not only roll into a ball but also stretch out without breaking.
Once you've worked out which soil type you have here are some tips for getting the best from it.
Sandy:
Sandy soil is loose, free draining and will dry out quickly in warm weather.
To encourage the soil to retain moisture and nutrients, add lots of compost to the soil. And place plenty of mulch (newspaper, grass clippings etc) around your plants.
Clay loam:
Clay loam can be a dense, heavy soil but is easy to make into freer-draining soil by regularly adding compost and humus. Instead of pulling out old plants, dig them back into the soil. They will help create extra space and nutrients within the soil.
Loam
Loan soil is generally rich in nutrients and drains freely. To improve it you can add compost and mulch.
Clay soil
Clay soil is rich in nutrients and holds water well but it is prone to waterlogging, can be very sticky when wet and tough when dry.
Adding well-rotted manures and peastraw, gypsum, coffee grounds, mulch or compost can improve clay soil greatly by allowing water and oxygen to move through the soil more easily. Adding lime can also help to open up the clay particles and make it easier for water to pass through.
If you are able to, try draining the soil or, if necessary, dig trenches and lay drains to raise the garden beds above the soil surface. It's important that any major digging is done when the clay is 'damp-dry' and not wet or dry. This will most likely be around spring time when it's beginning to dry out following winter. If none of the above helps, simply build raised garden beds on top of the soil!
For more tips on getting success from your soil visit here.
Read full articleIf your garden doesn't get a lot of sun, there's no need to forego colour, variety and interest. Just choose plants that thrive in the shade.
"While many plants need sunlight to flower, there are quite a few that do well in part or full shade," says Awapuni Nurseries gardening guru, Tod Palenski.
He says lots of people have areas in their gardens that are shaded by trees, buildings or fences.
"If you're under-planting an area shaded by trees, be aware that their roots will dictate where you plant."
To ensure year round interest, Tod suggests mixing pretty flowering annuals with perennials with interesting leaves.
"Impatiens grow really well in shady areas, and come in a range of bright colours to liven up a dark area. Awapuni has a range of colours in their traditional and easy-plant Pop'n'Grow seedling ranges."
Tod says impatiens look best when planted in clusters among glossy-leaved perennials like hostas and clivia - both of which you can buy as fully grown plants at garden centres. He says the mix creates a lush, cool look. "The idea with shady gardens is not to make them look too formal. One trick is to plant seedlings together in uneven numbers as this gives a more natural, less contrived look."
To add more colour and interest, choose brightly coloured lobelia, and fill in any gaps with violas and pansies.
"Giant pansies look really pretty dotted amongst bigger plants, and they'll flower right through winter."
Hanging baskets are another great way to add colour to shady areas.
"They're a quick and easy project and can be hung from trees or fences, or on hooks screwed to walls," says Tod. "And they're perfect for shady areas because you won't need to water them as often as baskets hung in full sun."
Choose a basket and fill with potting mix, then add plants in your chosen colour theme.
"Cascading lobelia mixes work well around the edges of a basket with pretty violas in apricot or citrus planted in the centre."
Caring for shade-loving plants is easy, says Tod. Use an organic, copper-based slug bait to keep pests away and pick off dead flower heads to encourage new ones to grow.
"If you start now, once the summer heat arrives you'll have a lovely, shady spot, so you can retreat from the sun.
"Think about adding a seating area - somewhere you can take a good book, a cool drink and a 'do not disturb' sign!"
Gardens are like kids. They need time, attention and discipline to make them behave as they should.
But there's another simple secret to soil success and gorgeous gardens.
Gardens, just like kids, 'are what they eat' - feed them the equivalent of McDonald's all the time and you'll have a major problem on your hands.
However, unlike dealing with kids, preparing the right 'food' for your garden is a simple exercise - and best of all, there's no moaning about all those greens!
"The first order of business," says gardening expert, Henri Ham of Awapuni Nurseries, "is deciding what to plant.
"Then it's a question of feeding your garden specific nutrients depending on the outcomes you've got in mind."
For example, Henri says, an even balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK)-based fertiliser will boost the growth of your vegetable and flower garden. These nutrients are vital for developing roots, flowers and fruit.
"But if you're fertilising your lawn that's the last fertiliser you want to use!" laughs Henri. "That's when you use a potassium and nitrogen-based food."
And here's another similarity to feeding the kids - check the product labels to see which synthetic fertilisers contain what nutrients and in what proportions.
All fertilisers list the ratio of nutrients on the outside of the bag. For example commonly used Garden Galore has a NPK ratio of 4:1.4:3. Blood and Bone, another great natural fertiliser, has a NPK ratio of 6:6:0.
Whereas Garden Galore is just great for kiwifruit, ornamental and fruit trees, shrubs, roses and vegetables, Blood and Bone is best suited for use around leaf crops such as lettuce.
You can use the following list to work out what nutritional elements are best for which garden/plant conditions or outcomes.
"With a quick shot of boron this problem can be fixed in no time at all!
"However for a general all round mix of fertiliser you can't go past a combination of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, like Nitrophoska Blue," Henri says.
For new gardens, fertiliser should be applied approximately two weeks before planting - with the first day of spring just gone, now is the perfect time to begin.
It should then be re-applied every six months.
If you want to take a more organic approach to your fertilising, Henri recommends spreading either home-made or store-bought compost 50mm to 100mm deep over your garden and digging it in.
Another organic alternative, if your garden is already planted, is to use woodchip mulch.
"Mulch made of woodchips and leaves is brilliant at providing soil with essential nutrients. But try to avoid placing the mulch too close to plants to prevent plants rotting," says Henri.
And to really get the soil kicking along Henri recommends introducing worms to your garden.
"Worms are great at making fertile, healthy soil. They aerate the soil and distribute organic matter and nutrients. They also produce their own fertiliser, called castings."
So for a garden which behaves as it should, and grows healthy and strong plants, soil nutrition is the simple secret you've been searching for.
Read full articleNew to buying seedlings? Here's Henri's top tip for what to look for to ensure you get the best plants.
Look for individual root systems
The stronger your seedlings' roots are, the more likely they are to grow well.
Not sure how to tell if the seedlings your buying have individual root systems? Any seedlings packaged in plastic containers with little dividers will have their own root systems. Watch out for the ones with a whole lot of seedlings tangled together in one pot - their roots will break when you pull them out, which means not many will grow well.
Because we only use recycled newspaper and biodegradable packaging, our containers don't have dividers. But we guarantee all our seedlings have strong, healthy, INDIVIDUAL root systems - see the picture for proof.
As a final check - when you pull the seedlings out of their packaging you won't need to break apart the plants if they have their own root systems - they will already be separated.
Read full articleHas your inner gardener got the best of you and you bought too many plants with no place to put them straight away? Or is the weather just not playing along?
Whatever the reason, here are a few tips to keep your plants alive and healthy until you’re ready to get busy in the garden:
Firstly, keep your seedling or established plants upright at all times. Sit the base of your seedling bundles (still wrapped in their newspaper) in a saucer or ramekin with a little bit of water - but not too much water, you don’t want them to drown!
During winter keep your seedling bundles in direct sunlight. But in summer it’s best to keep them in an area that has part shade.
Your established plants can remain in their bags for a month, but each plant varies. It is best to get them in the ground before they become root bound. A good way to test this is to feel the bag, if it is hard like a rock then the roots have been established and removing the bag could damage the plant.
You should only leave your seedlings or established plants like this for a few days at most. When you’re ready to plant, dip the complete base of the seedlings in water. This will speed up the germination process, which leads to a faster growing plant and, in turn, a happy gardener.
If you’re unable to plant your seedlings in their permanent location for more than a few days or a week you should ‘heel’ the plants in soil. Heeling plants involves temporarily storing a plant in soil until its ready to be planted in its permanent spot. (This doesn’t apply to established plants.) This will ensure your seedlings remain healthy and continue growing. It also provides an extra layer of protection for their roots and gives you a bit more time to prep your garden. Remember, before you heel your seedlings, remove the newspaper.
During summer, the plants can be heeled for about a month and in winter you can leave them in the ground for the entire season.
Once you’re ready to plant them in their permanent location, carefully use a trough to dig them out without damaging their roots.
Read full article